Dominical Costa Rica

ANYBODY WANT TO GO BIRDING?

The metallic “twang” reverberated through the rain forest startling the three naturalists. A loud “goink” followed, penetrating the depths of the jungle. With expressions of disbelief, Mariamalia and Jason looked to Hacienda Barú guide, Juan Ramón, hoping for an explanation. He was the only one of the three who lived in the area where they were birding. The third booming call sounded more like a “boink,” but was every bit as loud as the others.

Juan Ramón smiled as he spoke. “Usually it doesn’t show up till February, but it comes every year. Some years it stays two months and others only a week but it always pays us a visit.” He laughed lightly, “My boss calls it the ‘electric guitar bird.’”

The date was January 3, 2004, the place, Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge and the occasion the annual official Audubon Christmas Bird Count covering the central section of the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor. The small group of expert birders were listening to the Three-wattled Bellbird. Later they sighted it on its perch near the top of an enormous rain forest tree. A wattle is a fold of skin that dangles from the throat of a bird or lizard, and the bellbird has three of them. About the size of a small hawk, with a voice as big as that of a trumpeting elephant, this impressive bird is normally found in places higher than 900 meters (3000 feet) above sea level. It was the best find of the day for the team of three, who were in charge of counting as many species of birds as they could find in the highland sections of Hacienda Barú, all of which is less than 300 meters above sea level.

Meanwhile, in the lowland sections of the refuge a five member team was combing every habitat, looking for everything from the Tropical Gnat Catcher to the Great Egret and the White Hawk. This team, lead by biologists Willi Alfaro and Katia Barrantes, with the assistance of, Dorothy Mackinnon, Leonardo Garrigues and myself, was busy combing the coastal lowland habitats, which include secondary forest, wetlands, open pasture, mangrove, beach front and river mouth. Having started at 4:30 AM, by breakfast time this group was already quite pleased with itself, having logged the Common Potoo, one of the best camouflaged birds in Costa Rica. In Spanish, this member of the night hawk family is called “Pajaro Estaca,” meaning “stake bird” because of its incredible resemblance to the broken branch on which it typically perches, almost as if it were an extension of the stick. See the photo of an adult Potoo with a chick. See if you can find the chick.

The big find of the day for the lowland team came less than 50 meters from the breakfast table. Willi Alfaro spotted one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen, the Blue-hooded Euphonia in small tree that was loaded with mistletoe. The scientific name of this, very small bird with black face and wings, deep purple back, sky blue hood and bright orange breast is “Euphonia elegantissima,” which needs no translation. This is another high altitude resident that wasn’t supposed to be on Hacienda Barú. It kept bouncing around from mistletoe to mistletoe like popcorn in a kettle, making a photo a near impossibility.

Giving up on getting a photo of elegantissima, our group moved onward, bolstered by early success and determined to turn in a truly impressive count. During the course of the day the lowland team identified 149 different species of birds. Of these, the cattle egrets were most numerous with 203 individuals, the Turkey Vulture the largest, the Blue-throated Goldentail Hummingbird the smallest, the Boat-billed Heron the most comical and the Gray-necked Wood-Rail the loudest.

The rainforest group in the highlands, led by ornithologist Mariamalia Araya came up with a total of 65 species. The highlands of Hacienda Barú are almost all primary forest, a single habitat, and is not likely to have as many species as the coastal lowland with its wide diversity of habitats. Though much less than the count of the lowland team the primary forest count was still impressive. In addition to the bellbird it included several Blue-crowned Manakins, tiny roundish birds that jump up and down on horizontal branches while making high pitched peeps. There were two members of the trogon family, medium-sized, colorful birds related to the famous Quetzal. Additionally they sighted three different birds of prey, including the snake eating, Laughing Falcon, which is named for one of its calls that strongly resembles a belly laugh. They also saw the grouse-like Great Tinamou, one of the few examples of polyandry in nature. That is a big word which means that the females mate with numerous males and lay eggs in each of their nests. The males then sit on the eggs, hatch them out and raise the young. Most of the ladies I know find this bird fascinating.

Since certain birds, like the Chestnut-mandibled toucan, the Fiery-billed Aracari, the Double-toothed Kite and the White-necked Puffbird, among others, were logged in both places, the total count for Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge was 170 species, less than the combined totals of the two teams. The preliminary, but not yet official, count for the entire Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor bird count was 381 species. All of the teams in the exercise covered an area of 385 square kilometers (177 square miles,) a circle 24 kilometers (15 miles) in diameter. The area began at the Hatillo Viejo River, encircled a big chunk of Pacific Ocean and the coastline all the way to Rancho La Merced National Wildlife Refuge in Uvita and the Ballena Marine National Park, then curved inland, crossed the Fila de Tinamastes and all the way down to the Bajos del Rio Pacuarito on the San Isidro side of the mountains. The range in altitude was from sea level to 1000 meters (3280 feet.)

In order to comprehend how truly remarkable the results of this bird count were, we must take into account that in over one hundred years of observation, only about 850 species of birds have been identified in all of the United States and Canada, a combined area of over 11 million square kilometers (7 million square miles.) In other words, North America has 28,500 times as much land as the area where we did the Path of the Tapir bird count, yet in one day we identified almost half the number of birds that have been identified there in a lifetime.

Tired, sweaty and a little sore, but immensely satisfied, everyone met for dinner around 8:00 PM. There was only one topic of conversation, birds. The coordinators picked up the lists from the team leaders. We finally made it home and hauled ourselves into bed around 11:00 PM. What a great day.

Anybody want to go birding?